Need some help finding the right pair of headphones.

I could really do with some help in purchasing a new pair of headphones! A bit of back story, I've never really been one into high end audio, but never really experienced anything of the likes. However over the recent years I've developed a desire for it all, my mothers boyfriend helped bring me into it by showing me his large collection of hifi equipment including names like Onkyo, Bower and Wilkins, Dynaudio and so on.

The unfortunate effect of this all has made me want to get myself a pair of decent headphones and up my game a bit. Personally, I've never really owned any audio devices of any value, in fact the most expensive audio purchase I personally made was a pair of Turle Beach P-21's which quickly broke on me but they were cheap as chips at the time. The most expensive pair of headphones I have listened to are a pair of Sennheiser HD5something, open ear ones, and I quite liked them.

And now I've been able to come into a monetary position that allows me to spend a nice amount on a new pair. So I will continue with some information that will be a little bit more useful.

My budget is ideally around £100, but happily willing to go up to £150, and if everyone thinks it's a good idea, I would go up to £250 providing it's something really special and I won't be able to get for such a price in a long time. Bang for buck is really the higher priority rather than price, I'd rather pay £150 for a £300 pair than £100 for a £150 pair.

I will mostly use them for gaming and listening to music, I'm an avid gamer but also have a great love of music. I mostly play action and atmospheric games like Battlefield 4, Planet Side 2, Diablo 3, Counter Strike, Dayz and so on, so what features that are great for that would be very helpful. As for my music taste, it mostly consists of heavier genres like bassy EDM (Glitch Hop, Electro and such) and various kinds of metal like Five Finger Death Punch, Slipknot, Alter Bridge, Atreyu, Bullet for my Valentine. So I do think a nice amount of clarity in sound but also significant bass would be nice. I want to be able to hear that guy behind me's footsteps, but also feel immersed into the game when epic moments in Battlefield and Planetside occur, with jets flying overhead and bullets whizzing past your head.

As for the setup I use, it'll be a mixture of my phone (HTC One) when doing stuff around the house, my computer with a sound card (And soon an amp to go with it.) and to plug into a bit of hifi I have next to my bed for just relaxing and listening to music or podcasts. I will never leave the house with these headphones as I have a pair of Soundmagic E10's for that which are good and also very replaceable and discrete, so looks and sound leakage are not a problem.

I can't think of anything else to add other than to say the pairs I'm currently considering are AKG 550's, V-Moda M100's and Klipsch Mode M40's. I really like the look of the V-moda's and Klipsch's, but because of the price drops, they weren't in the same price ranges that they are now so it's difficult to find comparisons between the three.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you're able to offer some advices and opinions as I would like to order them ASAP as currently annoying the rest of the household with my use of speakers! Thanks!

First of all, since you are obviously into gaming and put a premium on hp's that play well with gaming you should spend some time reading Mad Lust Envy's gaming guide. This epic thread here reviews several popular hp's and evaluates their gaming and music performance.

Ah thanks, that thread was helpful, maybe bass and gaming don't go together too well. For what it's worth, I'd prefer musical quality over gaming, I'm only playing games sometimes, but I'm always listening to music. So going from what I've learned in the thread, it seems I now have a little list. From most wanted to least.

For what you want out of your headphones, I would say get one for gaming and one for music.

V Moda M100 seem a really good option for music.

Sennheiser HD 558 or 598 are good for gaming and movies.

Razer Tiamat Is a gaming headset (good if you plat battlefeild 4 online). But require 7.1 surround connection and a usb port to work.

beyerdynamic custom one pro are a good bassy headphone. However they need to be run in, as out of the box the mids aren't very good but get a lot better after around 80 hours or so. They also have adjustable bass sliders one them.